The Little Oddity (And Other Tales of Litwak's)
by hrhowling
Summary: Hero's Duty holds more than a battlefield. It holds an extensive science lab, with experiments of every sort found amongst the luminescent green research chamber. One experiment in particular has produced rather interesting results... (drabblefic series, OCs involved, not everything is in chronological order, Rated T just in case)
1. The Little Oddity

Hero's Duty didn't just consist of a battleground plagued with cybernetic bugs (or Cy-Bugs, as they are commonly named), it also contained an advanced research facility where scientists conducted experiments on said bugs. Be it gathering data, developing weaponry or even new forms of life-saving equipment, there was always a fancy, high-tech project going on in the murky green facility.

Sergeant Tamora Calhoun didn't care much for these experiments. It wasn't part of her programming. But she always stayed up to date on what was taking place in the science lab just to make sure there was no threat of an invasion from within occurring. Very rarely, she'd hang around the research facility after the arcade's closing hours to supervise any particularly one-on-one-with-the-cy-bugs-type experiments, and thankfully there hadn't been any outbreaks of savage mutants that she'd had to take care of.

Today was one of those rare occasions. Sergeant Calhoun watched with grim tension as the scientists all hurried around setting up last-minute bits of equipment and flicking through long, numerous strings of code, the whole scene bathed in an eerie green light.

"Tamora, are you sure this much extra security is necessary?" asked the head scientist, a tall, slim woman of a similar age to the armour-clad sergeant. She had short, spiky red-russet hair that flew everywhere and black-lensed goggles were clad over her dark brown eyes. Her name was Jean Cassienka; a good friend of Tamora who still remained on first-name basis with her. Their backstories had stated that they'd started off as recruits on the same squadron, until Jean's talents for science and observation had resulted in her being moved to a different field.

Then thanks to their programmers, they'd found themselves on the same bug-infested planet, working for the same goals, and they'd become even closer since then.

"I don't want to take even the slightest chance with this, Jean," Tamora replied. "You're trying to create a new breed of Cy-Bug, and I don't want a new infestation taking over the arcade like last month."

Jean visibly cringed at the mention of that incident, the images she'd seen still disturbing her.

"Tamora, trust me, I've made my calculations and I'm certain that-."

"It's not you that I don't trust. It's the Cy-Bug coding. No matter how many calculations you make, chances are that something will go wrong."

"… You're right… But you know what I'm trying to achieve here, right? Trying to create a Cy-Bug that… won't kill us..? A tame one…"

"Cy-Bugs will never be tame," Calhoun stated indifferently. "Your optimism is starting to remind me of Felix."

"Your handyman boyfriend?" the goggle-clad scientist chuckled. "Perhaps he and I should-."

"Get on with the experiment, Jean or I'll take the Cy-Bug egg you've been working so hard on and-."

"Okay, I get it! Don't get your hair in a twist!" Jean laughed as she strode off to make a few final checks, smirking when she looked back to see Tamora's face morphed into an indignant scowl.

_She knows I'd never do that,_ she thought, knowing that the friendship she shared with the stony sergeant made them much more than mere friends.

* * *

><p>"What's going on?! Jean?!"<p>

Tamora's eyes flickered over the screens, realising the coding that was displayed on them had turned an alarming red and an incessant, high-pitched beeping rang in her ears. Something was wrong, and years of programmed training told her that if she didn't do _something,_ then it would get even worse.

"There's been a surge in the power, Tamora, we can't get it under control!" Jean yelled, panic seething behind her goggles as more lights began to flash around her. "This could end badly..!"

Tamora scowled, steely determination simmering in her eyes. If that egg hatched, then there was no telling what sort of abominable catastrophe could spawn from it.

"I'm destroying that egg!" she shouted over the noise. The beeping had evolved into a wailing siren and some of the 'younger' scientists were panicking.

"What?! No! You can't do that! I've worked so hard for this! I am _not_ letting _anything_ undo all my hard work! I've trusted your judgement since we first met during the backstory and since we got plugged in over a month ago. Now I want you to trust me. I've been working on this since the incident in Sugar Rush, trying to create something that can understand us and the Cy-Bugs at the same time, spending endless hours developing something that just might stop something like that happening again. You have to at least let me try!"

The pleading, desperate and almost borderline insane expression on Jean's face told Tamora that if she did indeed destroy the egg, then she'd never forgive her.

"Fine!" she yelled over the sirens. "I'll trust you, but the moment it's necessary, I'm putting that thing down!"

Before she'd even finished that statement, Jean had run off to one of the monoitors, barking orders in a way that reminded Tamora of herself.

"Wilkins! Quit running around like a headless chicken and unplug the power to that egg! That'll cut off the surge and stabilize it somewhat! Macintosh! Get the secondary power source up and running! I'm not letting this thing die yet! GET TO IT LADIES!"

* * *

><p><em>Three hours later<em>

Jean slumped against the monitor, her body feeling hot and sticky with sweat. Three exhausting hours of yelling, running, and various other activities had left her with sore legs, head and throat.

"Oh my mod!" she croaked. "N-never, again! Urgh! Time to see what we've achieved…"

"Are you alright?" Tamora asked. "You had one of your episodes again."

"I noticed. Come on, I want to know if this was all worth it." With that said, Jean hauled herself up onto her aching feet and stumbled over to the small glass dome that emitted a ghostly green light. Encased in the clear vessel was a small, dark egg that glowed faintly, and was barely even the size of Tamora's hand. The shell was an extremely dark purple, and the light it gave off was pinkish in colour.

"Is it..?"

Jean almost cried with happiness as she removed the goggles and replaced them with glasses. "It worked! I-it's alive! Hehe, shoot me for the lame joke if you want, but I just can't believe it! We created a Cy-Bug of our own!"

"Don't celebrate yet," Tamora chided. "We still need to see if it's actually as tame as you were hoping."

If the overjoyed scientist had listened to Tamora, then she didn't show any signs of acknowledging it. Instead she lifted the dome from over the egg to examine it. When she'd first finished developing the egg, it had been cold, black and dead. Now she could see that the pink glow coming from it was pulsing ever so slightly, like a heartbeat.

"Are you sure this will work?" Tamora asked sceptically.

"No, but I sure hope it will," Jean replied, her voice almost a whisper. "Come on, hatch already."

Tamora huffed in slight irritation as she realised that her friend was once again talking to the experiments. Did her obsession with science ever stop producing odd little quirks?

"Don't you have to apply contact to the egg before it will hatch?" she said, more hinting than questioning. "Sort of like an 'on switch?'"

"Oh yeah, I suppose you're right…"

After a little more incoherent mumbling, Jean tapped the egg ever so gently. The action made it glow much, much brighter, and cracks began to form along its surface. A large cracking noise erupted from it, and it cracked open, spraying small shards of dark purple shell all over the place to reveal the creature inside.

It was long, dark and covered in a clear, viscous slime. At around eight inches in length, it could easily rest in Tamora's hand (not that she'd allow it of course), two inches wide maximum and it began to taper at the tail end. Its purple-black head was somewhat round and bulbous, sporting a pair of black, pincer-shaped mandibles with neon pink edges, and glowing yellow eyes that faded into an almost white colour towards the edges. It's 'face,' if you could call it that, had three blue-violet stripes over the eyes and another stripe seemed to connect its eyes. Singular bands of the same colour wrapped around the upper sections of its six legs, and the tips of its claws. A pair of long, tapering, yellow-green feelers, streaked with neon orange made up a tail and flailed around the place, as if agitated. The segmented, centipede-like shell was a dark purple (Calhoun could only describe it as a dark plum colour) and mottled with a rosy pink, spiked shell casing the creature's lower legs were the same dark purple and marked with jagged, neon-rose pink stripes.

"What the hell..?"

"It's beautiful!" Jean breathed with disbelief. "Not like any Cy-Bug I've ever seen!"

Tamora didn't question Jean's logic. They both saw Cy-Bugs differently; she saw them as abominable monsters, the nutty scientist saw them as fascinating… whatever she saw them as.

"Macintosh! Start recording! This needs to be documented!"

Without any consent from Tamora, Jean scooped the… experiment… off of the table with one hand, not even receiving a bite for her trouble. The creature simply let out a high-pitched chirping sound, almost as if it was happy and enjoying the attention.

"Okay, so that's physical contact sorted. No signs of hostility, -. Is that… purring? Seems almost tame. This is a breakthrough in our research. I think we've done it! It's so strange… unreal!"

"So your goal was to create a pint-sized Cy-Bug that you can keep as a pet?" Tamora asked, mixed emotions showing behind her eyes.

"… What an oddity! Tamora, you hold it."

"No."

"Come on! It won't hurt you! Trust me."

Tamora growled and begrudgingly took hold of the creature. A layer of slime still coated it and it took all of the soldier's willpower not to grimace or crush it. The Cy-Bug let out a little chirp and fastened its six legs onto Tamora's hand, forcing an involuntary shudder up the woman's arm.

"This is… disgusting…" she mumbled. "Completely against my programming."

"Do you want to give it back to me then?" Jean asked, holding out her hand. Tamora was more than eager to hand the creature over to the scientist.

"What to call you..?" Jean mused after several minutes of examining the dark purple centipede creature. "You're such a…"

"Such a what?"

"An oddity." A smile graced Jean's lips. "That's what you are; a Little Oddity."


	2. Picking a Name

"So what's the big deal? It's just a pretty-looking Cy-Bug."

Vanellope swung her legs over the edge of the tram heading to Hero's Duty, tuning out of the long, fancy explanation that was streaming unhalted from Jean Cassienka's mouth. Nine-year-old girls were never really that interested in that stuff. It would be a relief when she finally got to see the actual thing and not have to put up with the insufferably boring scientific lectures.

* * *

><p>"Afternoon, Short-Stack."<p>

At the sound of his girlfriend's voice topped off with the cheeky nickname that he'd gained from her, Felix instantly felt the 'honey glows' racing up to his cheeks. Hopping off the tram with Jean, Ralph and Vanellope, the handyman wasted no time in hopping up to Sergeant Calhoun and planting a loving kiss on her cheek.

"How's my dynamite gal today?" he asked affectionately.

"Just fine, Fix-It," Tamora replied. "I was just-."

"Can we get this over with?" Vanellope interrupted. "Let's just see this fancy Cy-Bug and leave."

"The kid's right, guys," Ralph said. "Cy-Bugs are freaky enough, and now you're making new ones? Isn't that a little bit too..?"

"Too what?" Jean butted in, a slightly peeved expression on her face. "You can't seriously think that there's a downside to having a tame Cy-Bug around can you? One that actually understands you and would also fight to keep you safe."

Ralph shrugged indifferently, the concept not all that wonderful to him. "Probably just my own personal opinion." He looked at Calhoun with an expression that was begging her to get the quirky scientist to just get the show and tell session over with.

"Jean, just go get your purple… or pink, whatever colour it is… pet out of its little enclosure already," Calhoun barked. The scientist did as she was told and hurried off with her guests in tow.

"We've deduced that the Oddity is female, so I'd appreciate it if you referred to her as a 'she,'" Jean explained.

"What sort of a name is 'Oddity'?" Vanellope scoffed.

"Oh, right, because Vanellope von Schweetz and Francis Fluggerbutter and Taffyta Muttonfudge are _perfectly_ normal names, aren't they?" Jean drawled sarcastically.

"His name is 'Rancis,' not 'Francis,' and at least my name sounds like a proper one!" Vanellope retorted, a pout forming on her bottom lip. It took all of Jean's willpower not to say 'someone has a crush!' in a sappy sing-song voice to annoy the kid further. She just shrugged to end the little dispute before it got out of hand.

* * *

><p>Once in the shiny green lab, Felix, Calhoun, Ralph and Vanellope all waited by one of the dark metal desks whilst Jean ran off to get The Oddity. She came back carrying a dark purple centipede creature with six legs and neon pink markings. It was about the size of a cat.<p>

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Ralph yelled upon seeing the creature. "I thought you said that-."

"It could fit into my hand, yeah," Jean said calmly, placing the Oddity on the desk in front of the four guests for them to see 'her' properly. "But she's grown throughout the week. And fast at that."

Vanellope would have made a smart comment at this had she not been transfixed by the pair of yellow-gold eyes that gazed into her chocolate brown ones. The nine-year-old tilted her head slightly and the dark purple Cy-Bug gave a small chirp and clicked its pink-tipped mandibles together. Both were overwhelmed with a strange, childish curiosity.

"She's freaky-lookin'," Vanellope muttered, but her voice didn't portray any cruelty or mocking in it. "I like her!"

The words seemed to register in the Oddity's mind as positive, so she purred and promptly rolled onto her back. Jean noticed and laughed joyfully.

"She wants you to tickle her belly," she explained, holding back a fresh fit of giggles. "Go on, I've done it myself and she doesn't bite."

Vanellope looked unsure at this and Ralph's face held and expression that announced he wasn't too happy with the idea. He almost butted in and stopped the munchkin when she reached her hand out to the Cy-Bug's dark purple, segmented belly, but stopped himself when he saw how cheerful both of them were. The Oddity chirped and let out a squeaking sound that resembled laughter and Vanellope chuckled softly at the experiment's response.

"She's kinda cute," she said. "But I don't think Oddity suits her. I… I'm gonna call her Oda."

"Oda?" Felix asked quizzically.

"Short for Oddity, uh-doi!"

"Oda, huh?" Jean said. "I like it."

As if in agreement, 'Oda' chirped happily.

* * *

><p><strong>A.N. A shorty this time, and Oda gets an actual name ^_^ I hope you enjoyed it, and be sure to post a review, I'd adore the feedback.<strong>


	3. The Agonising Change

**A.N. Again, this is short; only around 300 words. It takes place during the movie and once you're done, it'll be pretty obvious who's perspective it's at. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Terror. It fills my chest to the brim and overflows through my throat, tearing free of it in the form of a scream. My shifting body is torn apart by the grinding cyclone of fangs, ripping me limb from limb and twisting my skull off of my neck. Organs are ground to a pulp and bones crushed to powder. The glitch got away. I don't know if I should be glad or furious.<p>

Then nothing. Not even an empty darkness. I'm not sure how long I'm like that, but pretty soon I start to regain my senses. My vision is darkened and impossibly hazy, and a low, constant drone is thrumming through my ears. My body feels strange, as if it doesn't fit me anymore.

That's when I start to change. My head is thrust forward, my front legs being forced to follow. The agony presents itself as an unearthly screech, ripping out of my lengthening neck that bulges and convulses horribly. My mouth is torn open by the nightmare fangs that are replacing my teeth, and the legs that were pushed forward with my head are being split open into clawed parodies of hands, the joints wrenching apart to fit the shoulders that have formed at the base of my malformed neck. A human torso extends from my abdomen, cracking and twisting, forcing more screams of torturous agony out of my bloodied throat.

It all goes black for a few seconds, before I wake up again with a new feeling rushing through my veins. Power. I felt invincible! I could do whatever I pleased, and no one could stop me!

I lift my head, eyes gleaming with a new purpose. My wings vibrate and lift me off the ground. For once my goal is clear in my mind.

Revenge.

Kill.

Destroy.

* * *

><p><strong>A.N. Yep! Told you it was obvious! :P Anywho, I'd love it if you left a review! Adios!<strong>


	4. The Loss of Ages

**Hmm... I'm not so sure what brought this on besides the fact that at school we're working on the theme of loss in Romeo and Juliet, and it made me think about what this anonymous character has lost. This is after the movie, and of course it's obvious who it is.**

* * *

><p>Agony.<p>

Hate.

Loss.

Defeat.

These are but a fraction of the things running rampant through my head, making the vice-like pain that gripped my entire being tighten its dreadful hold. Red, sputtering glitches race along my twisted form, intensifying the hurt. The heat of the boiling pit of cola lava does nothing to soothe my agony either; in fact it only makes it so much worse, knowing that I don't possess the strength to haul myself away from it.

I have lost everything. My home, my family, my thunder, my strength, my kingdom, my title, my whole life! All to that glitch and her halitosis-ridden warthog of a friend!

Revenge. I'd be plotting it if my mind wasn't in such turmoil, as it has been for the past thirty years since I tried to win back the gamers' adoration. I… I just want it to stop! No more pain, fear, no more having to hide behind else's face to stay in the spotlight. I want my life back.

These feelings, they're feelings I haven't experienced in a long, long time. It makes me realise how much I must have changed throughout the years. Makes me think that… I shouldn't have done the things I did. Makes me relive old, bittersweet memories.

My last, hazy thoughts are of two pale figures in blue jumpsuits, before I slip into unconsciousness again…


	5. First Outing - Game Central Station

**So, this small part of my drabblefic series is split into two 'chapters' and details Oda's first visit to Game Central Station. As you shall later find out****, she's got a more or less human personality combined with some more primitive instincts that she's gained from the Cy-Bug coding she's made from.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Oda's first thoughts on the world outside Hero's Duty? Hmm… something along the lines of 'where the heck did all this bright light come from?!'<p>

It was true. Compared to the dark, murky green outlook of the lab she'd grown up in for the past month since she was created, the bright white scene of Game Central Station was a massive shock for her.

When she'd gotten over the surprise of the area she was in, it was then the sheer amount of _people_ around that got her attention. Sure, there was always the comforting, endless hum of activity around the lab as the numerous scientists busied themselves with experiments and monitoring the game, but it had always seemed organised and spacious, which calmed the young Cy-Bug down a great deal.

Game Central was a completely different matter though.

Since the arcade had closed just ten minutes earlier, the station was a crowded hub of activity. Characters of all different shapes, sizes and colours bustled around, some sat in various sized social groups, others making beelines for other games. It was noisy and quite scary to Oda, who had never seen so many characters in one place before, let alone been faced with the task of manoeuvring through them all to get to another game just opposite her own output.

Overwhelmed by it all, the purple Cy-Bug chirped nervously and backed away into the Hero's Duty output, her long, hard-shelled body curling slightly in apprehension.

"Come on, Oda, it's not _that_ scary."

Upon hearing the voice just ahead of her, Oda looked up slowly, setting her golden eyes on a tiny girl who stood by the edges of the throng of game characters. The girl's raven hair was tied back in a ponytail and strewn with various pieces of candy, her large brown eyes focused solely on the Cy-Bug that had grown to dwarf her small stature greatly throughout the past three weeks or so. Her outfit had a base colour of a teal-turquoise-type colour, made up of a hoodie, striped legwarmers, a black skirt fashioned from a cake case and black liquorice boots. To most people, she was quite adorable.

In an attempt to further express her discomfort, Oda chittered loudly. The response was supposed to say something along the lines of 'Easy for you to say! You're used to it!"

The girl, Vanellope, sighed softly and strode over to the distressed Cy-Bug, placing a tiny hand between her companion's eyes, which were now roughly the size of Vanellope's head. "Come on, it's only gonna be a few minutes," she said reassuringly. "Then we'll be at Sugar Rush. Just keep walking, no one's gonna get in your way."

Oda nodded her head slowly in agreement. At a month old, she was now around six feet long discounting her tail and weighed a heck of a lot more than her human mother, Jean. Her purple-black mandibles had grown long and deadly, but she never used them for anything except grinding the food that she was given into a state that she could easily consume. Speaking of feeding, the 'you are what you eat' rule that was embedded in almost every normal Cy-Bug's coding didn't seem to have been programmed into her. True, she'd grown and her body proportions had changed slightly, but apart from that, nothing about her had changed when she'd eaten anything. Heck, she'd eaten a gun once for experimental purposes, but nothing had happened.

Vanellope grinned and began rushing towards the Sugar Rush output, speed-glitching every now and then. Oda followed her hesitantly, wary of every character she passed. Thankfully they all parted for her, the sight of a massive Cy-Bug that could easily bite someone in half being hard not to notice. Granted, someone did step on her ridiculously long tail by accident, but they'd only got a pained hiss for their troubles before Oda continued on her way after her friend.

Once at the output, it was the simple matter of making their way down the cable before they reached the bright, candy-coated game. They passed a few NPCs along the way, who had cast nervous glances in Oda's direction before immediately scooting off, but other than that there was no trouble.

"See?" Vanellope said proudly. "What'd I tell ya?"


	6. First Outing - Start of a Sweet Life

"Wha? Oda, quit eating the bridge! Pfft! Haha!"

Oda looked up at Vanellope, her mouth full of the hard, multi-coloured candy that made up the very first aspect of Sugar Rush any character saw when entering the game. She swallowed the sweet, tangy substance before chirruping softly as Vanellope jumped on top of her back.

"Tarry ho, my noble steed!" the candy president chanted, quoting a storybook she'd read in the castle library. Oda 'chuckled,' and proceeded to trundle forward and down the rainbow bridge, her long form making a snaking trail as she moved.

"Look! Look! There's Candlehead!" Vanellope yelled, pointing to a birthday cake themed cart that was zooming along a chocolate powder road. "Come on, let's go say 'hi!'"

In response, Oda tittered softly and quickened her pace in the direction Vanellope was pointing. Before they reached the other candy girl, Vanellope jumped off of the Cy-Bug's hard-shelled back and rushed over to her friend.

"Hey, Candlehead!" she hollered, waving her short arms frantically in an attempt to gain the other racer's attention. Said racer skidded to a halt just in front of her.

"Hey, Vanellope," Candlhead greeted, the candle on her helmet glittering. "How's it going? I haven't seen you much after hours."

"I've been visiting Hero's Doody recently," Vanellope chuckled. "There's a new character there, who I've brought round to visit."

"Really? Who?"

To answer her question, Vanellope marched back to where Oda, who had hung back a little and was contentedly chewing on some spearmint grass. When Candlehead saw her, she froze in shock, her big green eyes widening in fear.

"CH! Meat Oda!" Vanellope announced, causing Oda to look up and chirrup gently at the mention of her name. "Oda, I'd like you to meet Candlehead, but just call her CH. Say hi, Oda."

Oda chirped in Candlehead's direction, and if anyone had been able to accurately translate the chirps and squeaks she made, then it would have registered as 'hi CH!"

"Th-that's a Cy-Bug," Candlhead whispered, the fear easily distinguished in her voice.

"A tame one!" Vanellope explained. "She's really nice and won't bite. Come on, pet her."

Candlhead hesitated at first, but since she didn't want to annoy Vanellope, she inched forward and reached her hand out for the space between Oda's eyes. The large Cy-Bug gave a low purr and pushed her head against Candlhead's hand. When warm carapace made contact with soft skin, Candlhead let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Smiling slightly, she petted the creature quite happily.

The contact sent warm shivers racing up and down Oda's spine, and she suddenly rolled onto her back. Candlhead squeaked in shock, yanking her hand back, but when Vanellope laughed and jumped onto the Cy-Bug's belly to tickle her gleefully, she giggled and joined in. Very soon, she'd lost all fear of the massive creature.

For the rest of the day, Oda was given an exclusive tour of Sugar Rush. She met quite a few other racers, and also forged some special friendships with most of them.

Life, as they often say, was sweet.

* * *

><p><strong>Hmm... this is a little... iffy, but I suppose it needed to stay short and sweet shot**

**/revives**

**Well, pretty soon I'll be moving onto a larger WiR fanfic, not a drabblefic. I'll be continuing this though, don't worry. Stay Tuned for the first chapter of my newest story!**

**I just need to figure out a title... :T**


	7. Turned

**Umm... yeah... there's some very, _very_ mild blood and violence. Not much, but I just thought I'd warn you.**

* * *

><p>Calhoun's near-permanent frown deepened slightly when she saw Jean's worried expression. The scientist had just finished up checking her little pet experiment, and whenever she came back looking worried, it was a sure sign something was up.<p>

"What's wrong?" Calhoun asked. "Oda refusing to eat or something?"

Jean simply nodded. "That, and she's suddenly become aggressive. I don't know what's wrong with her."

The frown on Tamora's face morphed into a scowl. "Aggressive as in..?"

"She's giving warning signs. The ones you'd usually expect; hissing, clicking of the mandibles, flicking her tail around and backing up against the wall. It's as if we've become a threat to her."

"We?"

"Me and the other handlers."

"Oh. Do you think she could be... um…? You know..?"

"Getting ready to reproduce? I honestly have no idea. It's a possibility, but from previous tests, we've gained knowledge that she's most likely sterile, meaning she can't breed. Ever" Jean sighed resignedly, her shoulders slumping. "But then again it could just be because she's not mature enough."

"It's probably a phase," Tamora suggested. "I know it sounds crazy coming from me, but the chances of Oda attacking a human, particularly one she's grown to trust, are pretty slim."

Jean looked up hopefully. "You sure?"

"Pretty sure. I'll come with you next time you check on her."

"Thanks, Tam. You're a real good help. If you trust her, then I won't go against your judgement."

* * *

><p><span><em>The next day<em>

Tamora's long strides matched Jean's almost perfectly as they made their way to the enclosure that Oda was kept in. Both women had high hopes for the Cy-Bug's behaviour.

"Look, if she does something really, really bad then please; _don't. Shoot. Her._" Jean instructed as she approached the small group at the enclosure door, made up of three powerfully built men wearing padded, almost armoured clothing. It was like the clothing worn in dog training areas that Tamora had come across in some cop game a few weeks ago. The trainers programmed into the game had worn thick, padded sleeves when training the particularly vicious-looking German Shepherds in the game.

"I see you're not taking any chances," Tamora remarked in approval. "When was the armour called for?"

"Yesterday, after Oda was acting hostile," Jean explained. "She may be tame, but I don't want to take any chances at the moment."

Tamora nodded, knowing that although Jean was eager and rather happy-go-lucky, she always used caution when it was called for.

"Let's go and check on her."

Jean nodded, looked at the men, and opened the door.

The room was reasonably bright, illuminated by a green glow. There wasn't much in the room because Oda didn't spend much time in there or require all that much. Said Cy-Bug was backed up into the corner, a low hiss emanating from her mandibles. Her golden eyes were narrowed in suspicion, and there was an obvious tension in her six sharp, purple limbs. Something was definitely off about her.

"I see what you mean," Tamora mumbled.

"Oda, it's me," Jean crooned softly, trying to calm the Cy-Bug down. "Calm down, I won't hurt you."

Oda snarled gently, rapid clicks being produced from her mandibles. She didn't feel safe. Why were these big, strange-smelling men here? Why did she feel hostility radiating off of Aunt Tamora?

"Careful, Professor," one of the men warned. "She's getting edgy."

To prove the man's point, Oda arched her back threateningly, her massive size seeming to almost double itself. She was much, much more than just edgy.

In an attempt to calm the distressed creature down, Jean made some of her own clicking noises in the back of her throat and a few high-pitched purrs and crouched down to make herself look less threatening. It would have worked had the men in the suits not been there. Still not feeling overly trusting, Oda snapped her jaws and jerked her head forward, warning that she wasn't taking any chances with any of the humans; friendly or not.

Sadly, that small jerk of the head was a bad move.

"Professor!"

One of the men, who had been pretty worked up about the ordeal anyway, suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Jean's right arm. Mistaking the action for an attack, Oda herself rushed forward and clamped her mandibles over Jean's other arm, cleanly severing it off from the elbow and swallowing the limb whole.

Tamora gaped in horror as Jean ripped her intact arm from the armoured man's grip and hastily tried to pull the fabric of her lab coat sleeve over the bloodied stump that her left arm had occupied just moments prior. With her face screwed up in pain, Oda hissing softly in the corner and the man who'd intervened panicking a good deal, it was obvious that things had fallen into a disaster.

"Everybody out!" Tamora ordered, shooting an icy glare in the direction of the man who had caused the panic in the first place. "Now!"

The men wasted no time in making a hasty departure from the room. Jean stumbled after them, casting a glance in Jean's direction with an all too clear message in her eyes.

"I won't hurt her," Tamora promised. Jean nodded in acknowledgement and left Tamora with the long, dark purple Cy-Bug.

"What's gotten you so worked up?" Tamora asked, not expecting an answer. Oda responded by curling up in the corner and chirping ruefully. It was obvious that she hadn't wanted to hurt the closest thing she'd had to a mother.

After a few minutes of staring, Sergeant Calhoun began to notice that something else was wrong with Oda. The gleaming dark purple plates of chitin on her back were extremely dull, the neon rose highlights on them looking washed out and grey. A strange, sickly green liquid was seeping from the cracks between her armoured carapace shells too. This was something Jean needed to know about.

Without a word, Tamora left the room, closing the door and locking it. From the other end of the corridor, she could hear Jean shrieking insults and curses, presumably at the idiot who'd messed up. Judging from the fact that Tamora couldn't hear anyone arguing back, it was a bad one, even worse than Tamora's rants.

Tamora shook her head with worry. Worry for Jean's stability, worry for Oda…

Just… worry…

* * *

><p><strong>Told you...<strong>

**Don't worry, I have no intention of killing off Oda or seriously harming her.**


	8. Metamorphosis

Two weeks.

Two weeks since Oda had 'turned.' Two weeks since she'd been found encased in a glowing green cocoon, supposedly trapped in some sort of metamorphosis.

Jean's face was a mask of worry as she once again entered the dimly lit room to find that Oda was still in the same state as yesterday. What was happening?

"I-is she okay?"

The young scientist looked behind her to see Vanellope Von Schweetz stood there, looking just as worried. The candy racer and Cy-Bug had become best friends throughout the month and a half they'd known each other, and now one of them was presumably trapped in some sort of limbo.

"No different from yesterday," Jean sighed. "I'll scan her and then we'll head back to the lab."

Vanellope just nodded and watched sadly as Jean did her job, making sure Oda was alright at least physically. The scan that the scientist carried out showed the same readings as the day before. And the day before that, and that, and that…

"Come on, we'll get some snacks or something. We have more than stinking war rations, you know."

On any other day, Vanellope would have laughed at the joke, but now? She just wanted her friend back. She hugged her arms to her chest and slowly followed the scientist back down the gloomy hallway.

When they were halfway down the corridor, a wet _smack_ met their ears, followed by the sound of spluttering and choking. It was coming from Oda's room.

The scientist and the president rushed back the way they came and came crashing into the room in a panic.

What they saw made Vanellope nearly faint with shock and Jean gasp so harshly that she thought she'd swallowed her tongue. The cocoon was split open, and lying sprawled on the floor was a young woman, around eighteen judging from her build. Dark, roughly shoulder-length hair was plastered to her scalp and face by some sort of watery liquid, her face turned away from Jean and Vanellope as she hacked and coughed in an effort to purge her lungs of fluid.

The most noticeable thing about her was that she seemed to be wearing some sort of… body armour. It encased her lower arms, shins, chest and shoulders, the exposed skin being a dark, purple-black colour decorated with neon lavender rings. The armour itself was a dark plum purple colour with rosy highlights, and perched on her back was a set of four golden-yellow insect wings, structured like spiked leaves and criss-crossed with veins of a darker shade of yellow. A tail grew from the base of her back; it was yellow and streaked with neon orange, twitching with every throaty cough the woman forced out of her throat.

"What the..?" Jean breathed. It was the first word anyone had uttered in the whole two minutes she and Vanellope had been standing there gawping at the woman who'd seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Said woman heard Jean's voice and turned her head to look at the scientist with big, golden eyes. The pupils were a darker shade of gold than the rest of her eyes.

"Oda?"

At the sound of Vanellope's voice, the woman pushed herself back towards the corner of the room, wrapping her arms around her knees and revealing the long, sharp talons on her hands.

"I-I…" she stuttered. It was as if she was struggling to get the words out of her mouth. Eventually she settled on one simple word. "Yes…"

* * *

><p>Oda sat in silence on the medical table, a thick towel wrapped around her shoulders. She'd dried off a little, but her hair; which was a comparable colour to Jean's; was still quite damp and stuck out all over the place, reminding Vanellope of Sonic. In the brighter green light of the science lab, it was obvious that the skin of her face was a very, very pale purple, and she had a similar facial structure to Jean, but obviously she looked a good deal younger, perhaps in her late teens. She also possessed a height that was near equal to Sergeant Calhoun's, at least several inches taller than Jean. It still didn't stop the eccentric scientist from constantly checking the bemused Cy-Brid over. Once or twice, Vanellope had seen her wings flitter about, but the reason was unknown to her.<p>

"This could… this could explain your behaviour two weeks ago," Jean muttered, not expecting a response. She'd yet to move onto the vocal exercises, and had advised Oda not to talk until then. "I'm guessing your code became extremely susceptible to what you ate, so that's why your physical form has changed so much. This is…"

"Unreal?" Vanellope suggested.

"Yes, unreal…"

Oda gazed up at Jean, her golden eyes filled with the same curiosity she almost constantly possessed. Despite the fearsome reputation of Cy-Bugs having been instilled in her, she looked positively adorable.

Suddenly, Vanellope asked a key question.

"How are we going to explain this to the others?"


End file.
